Drawing a Line in the Snow

by The Write City

In Chicago, you’re either a Cubs fan or a Sox fan; you can’t be both. Same could be said about Chicagoans and their feelings about winter. Some can’t wait for it. Others can’t wait for it to be over. Most Chicagoans have their positions on winter drawn firmly in the sand, er, snow.

The works that make up this special winter-themed edition of The Write City highlight all the beauty and the ugliness that can be the Windy City's winter. This edition doesn't take sides. It looks at winter from all of the angles, from the freshly fallen snow glistening on the tree branches at dawn to the blackened slush IDOT trucks plow away at dusk.

There's a little something for all Chicagoans in this edition, whether you anticipate winter with a gleam in your eye or with a scowl. There's Cynthia Clampitt's poetic look at one of the coldest days ever in Chicago, January 18, 1994, when the mercury plunged to 21 degrees below zero. In Donald G. Evans' short story Christmas Releases, a girl stumbles into old movie theatre showing classic holiday movies and finds what she'd been looking for but couldn't find in online chat rooms. Then there's an essay by Mary T. Wagner, Alles Klar that looks at the hardships we endure to care for aging parents and why we do it. Another essay, The White Knight, by Randy Richardson is a playful look at how our children can alter our perceptions and even conquer a snow grump. Finally, there's an interview with David S. Berner, author of Accidental Lessons: A Memoir of a Rookie Teacher and a Life Renewed, which closes this edition with an uplifting story that will warm one's spirit even on the coldest of days.